Last February, Houston audiences and critics were absolutely blown away by Steven Fales‘ unabashedly honest autobiographical one-man play, Confessions of a Mormon Boy , which Theater LaB Houston produced as a completely sold-out regional premiere. Steven Fales is back in town for the second installment of his Mormon Boy Trilogy, Missionary Position, which opened last night at Theater LaB. Gerald LaBita, artistic director and founder of Theater LaB, has wisely brought Mr. Fales back to our town to give us yet another dose of wonderful theatre as Steven Fales tells yet another side of his fascinating story. Mr. Fales wrote Missionary Position “as a response to California’s Proposition 8 because what we do in the Mormon Temple is what fueled what happened in California.”

Steven Fales in Missionary Position

While Confessions of a Mormon Boy covers the dramatic fall from Mormon grace that Steven Fales experienced through marriage, coming out, and eventual excommunication from Mormonism, Missionary Position serves as a prequel which covers growing up as a Mormon and the required two-year missionary program that every young male Mormon must accomplish in his late teens. Missionary Position takes us deep into the inner sanctum of the Mormon Temple where young men experience an elaborate ceremony whereby they are made orthodox Mormons before they go out into the world to win the world to Mormonism.

Mr. Fales enters the theatre from behind the audience in Missionary Position, lugging a huge black trunk behind him that is full of his early memories as a Mormon. In his matter of fact, very casual, cleverly, always humorous, yet never angry tone, Mr. Fales takes his memorabilia out of the trunk and shares his precious and many times painful memories with us. A certain tie reminds him of his favorite elder he had a crush on. A beautifully crocheted shawl serves as a comforting reminder of the two years he spent in Portugal. A letter contains the words of a woman who was once in love with him but is ready to move on. A journal entry discusses the pain of discovering his own homosexuality in a land and place where it can never be revealed or discussed.

Mr. Fales chronicles taking questions to the Mission President with an immediate response and dismissal “to not think but only feel.” “But it is the church that I have questions about,” replies Fales.
The President’s answer, again, is: “You’re thinking too much. Just keep feeling.”

In the very fast hour and a half that Mr. Fales transparently pours out his heart and soul, I laughed often. He weaves in many rousing Mormon hymns that are part of his history with a strong baritone instrument.
The overall feeling I personally experienced from his play is sadness, which was followed by anger. Sadness, because what happened to Mr. Fales seems to me to represent the epitome of religious abuse and spiritual conditioning. Angry, because the same abuse is still happening today in the classrooms not only of the Mormon Church but other churches who instill faith into children as if it were the truth. On a larger scale, I am reminded that Mitt Romney is a Mormon. If you want to get a better picture of what this man, who is running for President of the free world, stands for, I highly recommend that you experience Mr. Fales’ Missionary Position while it is in town this week at Theater LaB Houston. Mr. Fales exposes every lie and deceit of the Mormon Church and what it stands for. He firmly and blatantly states the following about Joseph Smith, founder of the Mormon Church:

“This (The Mormon Church) is all about the ego of Joseph Smith—a bi-polar megalomaniac who stole all this hocus pocus from the Freemasons and who got himself shot to death because he wouldn’t stop f__king his followers and calling them his wives.”

I cannot more wholeheartedly recommend this brilliant piece of transformational, autobiographical piece of theatrical genius. Steven Fales is a brave soul in a brave new world who has risked exposing himself and the indignities of the Mormon faith to the world so that we can better understand our own lives in light of his fascinating if not terribly painful enlightening journey.
Missionary Position plays at Theater LaB Houston this week Tuesday-Saturday at 8:00 p.m. and Sunday night at 6:00 p.m.